The United Nations General Assembly adopted the Political Declaration on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness, and Response (PPPR) by a substantial majority at a plenary meeting in New York on Monday, with 153 countries voting in favor and only three against. The declaration went to a vote after the UN High-Level Meeting on 25 September could not […] Continue reading ->
BERLIN – As candidates to become WHO director-general squabbled in the halls of the InterContinental, a three-year effort by the Lancet on future health threats delivered a sombre if uncertain warning: There is a chance, however small, that humanity will not survive this century – and we may all die. Two of the extinction threats […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Assembly chooses a new chief for the World Health Organization in May 2027. Before judging the candidates, assess the predecessors. Eight people have held the post over 78 years. Their varied track record offers pointers for selecting the future incumbent. Every five years, WHO rediscovers that its Director-Generalship is a political office […] Continue reading ->
More sexual misconduct and abusive claims were filed against WHO staff than closed over the previous month – with 361 open cases in 2026, as of the beginning of September, according to the agency’s own investigations dashboard. In August, the last month reported, investigators opened 37 new sexual and abusive conduct cases and closed 25, […] Continue reading ->
International development lenders committed $4.7 billion in 2024 to projects aimed explicitly at reducing air pollution, less than 1% of all international development finance, according to an annual analysis published Tuesday by the Clean Air Fund (CAF). That was up 58% from $3.0 billion in 2023, nearly matching the 2022 peak of $4.8 billion. A […] Continue reading ->
Nearly three in four maternal healthcare workers say extreme heat-related complications among pregnant women have increased over the past five years, according to a five-country survey released as climate ministers gathered in Fiji for the last major meeting before COP31. The poll of 1,001 obstetricians, midwives, nurses and other maternity staff in Australia, Brazil, India, […] Continue reading ->
HARARE – In March, 27-year-old Jemitius Gangata succumbed to malaria in Mahombokombe village in Zimbabwe’s Mashonaland West Province, becoming part of the country’s growing malaria statistics. By mid-April, the country had recorded over 65,000 malaria cases and 174 deaths, almost double the numbers from the same period last year, when 36,000 cases and 85 deaths […] Continue reading ->
COVID-19 dropped out of the world’s 10 leading causes of death in 2023 for the first time since the pandemic began in 2020, and only two years after it topped the list, according to new World Health Organization estimates released Friday. The virus directly killed an estimated 0.9 million people in 2023, ranking 14th, as […] Continue reading ->
Although the United States’ bilateral health memorandums of understanding (MOUs) with 35 countries are due to come into effect on Thursday (1 October), the start of the US fiscal year, the money will not flow yet – as countries have until Friday to submit their final 2027 budgets. And while US officials have hailed the […] Continue reading ->
Several significant pledges for global health – covering reproductive health, ‘transition’ and Ebola – were made on the fringes of last week’s United Nations General Assembly amid massive donor withdrawal from the sector. Reproductive health, which has suffered massive funding losses, got a $337.8 million boost from the United Kingdom, which announced its pledge at […] Continue reading ->